Samsung ‘repair mode’ provides peace of mind during phone repairs

When you’re having phone troubles that basic troubleshooting can’t fix, organising a repair is a common next step. However, data security when someone else is fixing your phone is a valid concern. Samsung’s new Repair Mode might be the solution to put your mind at ease.

As spotted by SamMobile, Samsung is adding a Repair Mode feature to devices in South Korea via a software update. Announced via a newsroom post on its Korean site, Repair Mode is a setting found in the Battery and Device Care menu rolling out to Galaxy S21 devices at first. It reboots your phone, blocking access to personal data such as photos and messages, while only providing access to the phone’s default apps. To then disable repair mode, you’ll need to reboot the phone again using fingerprint or pattern authentication. The idea is that you enable Repair Mode prior to sending the device away so no one can snoop on your private info.

Although it will only be for Galaxy S21 devices initially, Samsung plans to release the feature on more devices in the future. Recently, the Korean company shared a blog post about security and privacy discussing its Knox Vault technology. Samsung Knox Vault works to store your most sensitive data separately from the rest of the device at a hardware level. In short: Samsung is getting serious about security.

It’s not known when other countries will get Repair Mode, which leaves the door open for a potential announcement at the next Samsung Unpacked event on 10 August in New York. GadgetGuy will be at the event, bringing you the latest.

Repair Mode is a clever idea from Samsung on multiple levels. It provides peace of mind when you need to send a phone for repairs and can’t monitor its usage. Additionally, depending on how well the feature works, it could be a big time-saver not needing to factory reset your phone before sending it away – if you’re the extra cautious type. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until we see the feature on Australian shores.

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